9. SESSION 4: LIFELONG GUIDANCE AND EMPLOYABILITY

Opening Remarks by the session chair

Nurettin KONAKLI, President of Strategy Development, MoNE, Turkey

Mr. Konaklı started his remarks by saying that he had benefitted greatly from the Conference which had given him time to think about the process of establishing a lifelong learning system. As others had pointed out, Turkey adopted its lifelong learning Strategy and Action Plan in 2009 and this is now in the process of revision.

Lifelong learning systems aim at enabling people to increase their knowledge, skills and competences and this, in turn, increases their employability. One of the important components of LLL is to encourage the culture of entrepreneurship. As a founding member of Entrepreneur Development Foundation and a former expert of the State Planning Organisation, Mr. Konaklı underlined the importance of the culture of "ahilik", which is an older form of apprenticeship based on training under the supervision of a master This culture is still alive in Ankara, Kırşehir, Çankırı and some other places. He reminded delegates that Turkey has a long history of public education, mainly provided by public centres in which many lifelong learning activities take place. He added that there have been many courses and campaigns to eradicate illiteracy and with these courses more than 1.5 million adult have learned how to read and write A campaign entitled "Mother and Daughter are in School" had enabled more than 2.5 million to benefit from courses including literacy courses and more than 300,000 participants had been enabled to return to formal education. Thus it is fair to say lifelong learning activities could reach more than 4.5 million people each year.

Lifelong Learning and Employability in Scotland

John Hart, International Expert and Research Associate, Edinburgh University, Scotland

Mr Hart started his presentation by giving some information about Scotland. He said that although Scotland was a much smaller country than Turkey, he would try to describe its approaches to issues in lifelong learning which were important in Turkey. He explained that Scotland is a country with limited self-government within the United Kingdom. It has its own parliament, which was re-established in 1999 after almost 300 years and this parliament has responsibility for all aspects of education. Like Turkey, Scotland has a youth employment problem The youth unemployment rate is 21.4 percent and youth unemployment is increasing annually However, 43 percent of 16-24 year olds 253 thousand are enrolled in full-time education.

One of the first actions of the Scottish Parliament had been to establish a strategy entitled Life through Learning – Learning through Life This was published in 2003 following a national consultation exercise Lifelong learning policy in Scotland has three strands: personal fulfilment and enterprise; employability and adaptability; and active citizenship and social inclusion It is principally concerned with post-compulsory education, training and learning and gives particular attention to quality assured learning The current government has five strategic objectives, one of which is the development of a smarter Scotland The intention is to create individuals who are successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors and responsible citizens.

Mr. Hart explained that the emphasis on lifelong learning is reflected in government structure, which includes a Cabinet Secretary (ie a Minister) for Education and Lifelong Learning and a Directorate of Employability, Skills & Lifelong Learning. This directorate is responsible for all aspects of learning that take place after people leave school - from basic employability training through to post-doctoral research and the interface between learning of all kinds and work, enterprise and economic growth The directorate is responsible for both raising national education and skill levels and helping people to find jobs and participate in work There are a number of national organisations established, or funded, to carry out government policy in areas such as adult literacy, skills development, qualifications, and the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework. There is also a single body which distributes funds to colleges and universities. This body works with the further and higher education institutions to create strategic plans for developments in these sectors and works with the relevant quality assurance agencies to monitor and evaluate the implementation of these plans.

Mr. Hart went on to describe the importance of community development in the country. There are 32 elected councils which have responsibility for public services and they are expected to deliver these in an integrated way which meets local needs. The must use all available resources must be used - from the public, private and third (voluntary) sectors –and there must be consultation with individuals, groups and communities Public services must deliver results based on outcomes according to a local action plan, agreed with government These local councils must: work to improve services; coordinate data collection on progress; monitor and evaluate progress; and report on progress to the local community This pattern was very similar to what was being proposed for the lifelong learning in Turkey.

He described how government policy to increase employability was also integrative in nature, intended to ensure that individuals were able to take on work because they could look after their health, manage their money, as well as being literate and having both generic and specific skills required for the workplace. As well as supporting young people and people who had become unemployed, a lot of the work was with groups of disadvantaged people such as those who are geographically isolated, disabled people, single parents, and ex-prisoners.

Lifelong Guidance – A Feasible Policy Option for Turkey

Prof. Dr. Füsun AKKÖK, which institution, Turkey

Prof.Dr.Akkök started by stating that her presentation would explore answers to the following questions: "Where are we on this topic?", "Where should we be heading?" and "What would be the challenges and opportunities?"

She reminded delegates of the principles for lifelong guidance which had been developed by OECD in 2004 Lifelong guidance refers to support services provided for individuals of every age, at any point of their lives to make educational and occupational choices to develop and sustain themselves and their occupations For the last ten years lifelong guidance has been seen as an integral part of lifelong learning. She then underlined the main EU objectives for lifelong learning for 2020 These include: developing lifelong learning and mobility, at least 15 percent of adults in education, providing basic skills, decreasing the rate of early leavers, and extending early childhood education

In the second part of her presentation, Professor Akkök focused on the development path of lifelong guidance in Turkey. The period of 2002-2009 was marked by many projects, new policies and practices, institutional and individual capacity-building activities, preparation of national reports, and policy developments. In that period, a national vocational information system was established and a large amount of finance from EU and the World Bank were mobilised Most importantly, guidance had been integrated into all relevant programmes. In addition, the basis of cooperation among stakeholders had been set through a Memorandum of Understanding which was a step forward establishing a National Forum on Guidance and Counselling.

Ms. Akkök went on to consider guidance and information communication technologies (ICT) including interactive technologies, video-conferencing, e-mail, chat rooms and forums. She mentioned the benefits of ICT in eliminating the lack of information required in guidance; providing faster, cheaper and simpler services; facilitating the access of individuals to services and developing self-service approaches. However she emphasised the point that ICT should not be considered as an alternative of face-to-face counselling, it is best used when it supports face-to-face guidance interactions.

Ms. Akkök closed her presentation by giving brief information on EU's vocational guidance policies which was framed by Council Resolutions in 2004 and 2008. The latter set the objective of the better integration lifelong guidance into lifelong learning processes and covered important issues such as lifelong vocational development of skills, access to guidance services, developing quality assurance, and improving cooperation and coordination. During the period between the resolutions, some reference documents had been produced and a European Guidance Policy Network had been set up. She added that empirical findings, the accession process, and the demands of the market are among the elements that create an increasing need for a systematic provision of vocational guidance in Turkey

Questions From Delegates

Question 1

At the moment, there is a lack of cooperation between Public Education Centres and universities. If we increase this cooperation we can reach the groups under risk?

Question 2

We are not able to provide education to contribute the development of self-sufficient individuals. That is why we need more teachers on guidance. What can we do to improve basic skills?

Question 3

Students coming from abroad cannot be registered for courses or awarded certificates because they don’t have social security numbers? What is the solution to this?

Question 4

Can we have more information about the link between lifelong learning and unemployment – are they always linked?

Answers

Füsun Akkök (responding to questions 1, 2, 3 and 4)

Curricula should be reformed to ensure that individuals become more self-sufficient students. Hobby courses and courses to develop social skill should be included in the curriculum. As well as vocational courses, the education system should encourage innovative thinking.

As regards links between different parts of the system and the problems of international students, the best way to deal with these issues would be to establish a national forum with the responsibility of sorting these out.

John Hart (responding to questions 1 and 4)

In the Scottish system, there is a lot of local flexibility. The government has its own strategies on unemployment and social cohesion and so on and then it is up to the local community to decide where to put the emphasis. So one authority might put more emphasis on unemployment than another, but the point is that issues of health, housing, etc, are seen as part of the unemployment problem. If people don’t have stable lives it will be difficult for them to find work and keep it. In Scotland we have institution called colleges which are like Turkish Public Education Centres and Vocational Education Centres combined. These work in cooperation with our universities and the council which funds both colleges and universities puts a lot emphasis on this cooperation and on reaching people who are not usually involved in lifelong learning.